Clinton Hits Bush, Perot About Jobs

Bush Up In Polls

October 25, 1992|From Call news services

Bill Clinton declared yesterday that both his rivals would make the sluggish economy worse, calling President Bush a "job destroyer" and saying Ross Perot's plans would cost a half million jobs. Bush campaigned as the comeback candidate in the South, as polls showed the race tightening with 10 days to go.

Bush appeared in Montgomery, Ala., with one of the state's football heroes, Bart Starr, and contended that like some of Starr's teams, "we are going to achieve another stunning upset victory."

The president was seeking votes late yesterday in Louisiana, continuing a drive to nail down Southern states he had in his pocket four years ago.

National polls released on the next-to-last weekend of the marathon campaign all continued to show Democrat Clinton leading -- but by a narrowing margin.

A CBS-New York Times poll found Clinton's lead over Bush down to just five points. A survey for CNN-Time Magazine had Clinton's lead down to eight points -- or three, according to a smaller sample of likely voters. The Washington Post also said eight, Newsweek 12, U.S. News & World Report 14 -- all less than in earlier polling.

State-by-state surveys, including one by The Associated Press, showed Clinton leading in enough -- or nearly enough -- states for victory as the candidates began their final push.

Perot was leading in no states but had risen briskly in opinion polls -- as high as 22 percent in the Newsweek survey -- on the strength of his debate performance and long network commercials.

Clinton picked up support from two New York City newspapers and Bush gained the backing of both major papers from his adopted hometown of Houston, as newspapers across the country announced more endorsements.

The decisions came amid a trend, reported by Editor & Publisher, in which more newspapers are backing the Democratic presidential candidate than the Republican for the first time since 1964.

The New York Times praised Bush for his leadership in foreign affairs, but said that wasn't enough.

"Now, with the cold war over, he seems completely stumped by the need for leadership to move the country out of economic stagnation and spiritual unease," the Times said in its Sunday editions.

Also yesterday, moments before President Bush bemoaned the nasty tone of the presidential campaign yesterday by complaining at a shopping-center rally, "It's ugly out there," a friend of his told the audience that Bill Clinton is a "sissy" and made an off-color remark about the Democrat's genitals.

And Republican officials continued to defend the revival of the Gennifer Flowers "womanizing" issue against Clinton this week by Vice President Dan Quayle's chief of staff and by Quayle himself.

Bush-Quayle campaign spokeswoman Torie Clarke said that Bush should not be held responsible for everything his "surrogates" say. Warren Tompkins, the president's Southern regional political director, said: "I assume that he (Scott) was doing that in jest."

Interviewed on CNN, Bush declined to comment on vice presidential chief of staff William Kristol's pointed mentions Friday of Flowers, a former singer who has alleged having an extramarital affair with Clinton that the Democrat has denied. Campaign sources said the president would not deal with the subject, but left implications that others might press it.

Clinton, rallying union get-out-the-vote troops nationwide via satellite from Iowa, used the nation's switch to standard time last night to take a swipe at Bush.

"Today's the day we set our clock back an hour and he's been trying to do that for four years," Clinton said in Des Moines, before heading on to Ohio and Michigan.

Clinton started the day in Green Bay, Wis., and brushed off the reports of changing polls, saying, "There are six different polls that show five different results.... We can't be bothered by that."

He suggested he could actually be helped by Perot's rising figures if they prompt a more thorough analysis of the independent candidate's economic plan, which Clinton said would put 500,000 people out of work by 1995.

Both the major party candidates have begun criticizing Perot in recent days as his support has increased. Bush said on Thursday that Perot had some "nutty ideas" and Clinton took a gentler swipe yesterday at the independent's plans to reduce the federal deficit.

"You could raise taxes a lot and try to balance the budget. You just make the unemployment problem worse. You just make the economy worse, because it's so weak," Clinton said.

Bush also offered some unsolicited criticism of the Perot economic plan yesterday in Lafayette, La. Bush said he disagreed with Perot's call for taxes on some Social Security benefits and his plan to raise the gasoline tax by 50 cents a gallon over five years.

Both Clinton and Bush took time out for just-folks activities, too, Clinton playing his saxophone while a dairy farmer sang "Danny Boy" in Wisconsin, and Bush interrupting a morning jog in Montgomery to kick a soccer ball around with local kids.